Second-hand homes start the year off with a fall of 0.4%, but rise in Madrid

The price of the second-hand home in Spain has started the year off by experiencing a fall of 0.4% during the month of January. With this drop, prices are now situated at 1,726 euros/m2, according to the latest housing price index from idealista.com, the leading property portal in Spain. If we look at figures from January 2013 (1,848 euros/m2), the drop between this year and last is 6.6%.

Autonomous Communities

Prices have increased in three of the autonomous communities. The largest increase was seen in Baleares and in Madrid, where it went up 0.3%. They are followed by the increase recorded in La Rioja, which remained at 0.2%. All the rest fell in price, and Aragon and Navarra suffered the greatest drops: -1.6% in both areas.

Euskadi (2,858 euros/m2) continues to be the most expensive community. It is followed by Madrid (2,648 euros/m2), and Catalonia (1,913 euros/m2). On the other side of the charts, we find Castilla La Mancha (1,063 euros/m2), Extremadura (1,078 euros/m2), and Murcia (1,080 euros/m2), which are the least expensive communities.

Provinces

The number of Spanish provinces that kept their prices on the positive end during the month of December totalled 17. Prices had their largest increases in Zamora (1.3%), Ourense (1.2%), and Castellon (1.1%). The greatest fall was recorded in Pontevedra (-2.7%), followed by Badajoz (-2.1%), and Teruel (-2%). An abrupt change in the model in the Lugo province has provoked an alteration of prices (-12.1%), but doesn’t reflect the reality of its market.

The rank of the most expensive provinces stays the same, headed off by the Basque provinces of Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya, with 3,206 euros/m2 and 2,913 euros/m2 respectively. Behind them we find Madrid (2,648 euros/m2) and Barcelona (2,173 euros/m2). Cuenca is the most economical with a price of 929 euros per square metre. It is followed by Ciudad Real (989 euros/m2) and Toledo (995 euros/m2).

Since the housing bubble burst, there have been 11 capitals that have seen their prices fall more than 40%. The largest drop post-bubble has been recorded in Lleida, where prices have completely split in two (-52.7%). It is followed by Zaragoza (-48.9%), Guadalajara (-47.4%), Huesca (-46.9%), Avila (-45.2%), Valencia (-45.2%), Castellón (-45.1%), Girona (-43.6%), Cuenca (-43.1%), Logroño (-41%), and Tarragona (-40.5%). On the other side, we have the cities of Ourense (-14.6%), Palencia (-19.6%), A Coruña (-20.5%), Teruel (-20.9%), and San Sebastian (-21%).

The idealista.com housing price index

The housing portal idealista.com is currently the most utilized webpage in Spain for buying, selling, or renting. With thousands of homes currently for sale, the idealista department of research has completed an analysis of housing prices since 2000. After 13 years of research, idealista.com has become the main source of reference for numerous analysis teams from banking and financial entities, as well as from public institutions.

In order to complete the housing price index, idealista.com has analyzed 329,295 ads that are or have been advertised on their database between December 28th, 2013 and January 29th, 2014. In order to make the facts exact, they eliminated the listings whose prices were outside the market from the sample, as well as single-family homes, because including them distorted the price in some areas. They also left out the prices from the province capitals where there are less than 50 properties, since the sample is insufficient. The idealista housing index is done by dividing offer prices by square metres.